Archive for May, 2012

There is a bird shop where I get my birds from regularly near my workplace. Kooi Lim Pet Shop is situated somewhere along Batu 4 1/2 Jalan Ipoh. Its easy to spot the place. Just lookout for CIMB/Arab Bank/ Maybank on your left if you are coming from Jalan Kuching roundabout heading into Jalan Ipoh direction. Once you see the banks, look right. Ah Lim, inherited the business from his Dad. Apparently they have quite a lot of ‘jalan’ Hehehe. Although I live in a condo, my interest in birds were ‘awaken’ again when I worked at Jalan Ipoh. This is because during breaks, I ll be there ‘lepaking’ and checking the birds out. Common birds eg Merbuk/Budgies/Freedom birds are the norm there. Nowadays there are a lot of Merbah Jambuls (MJ). This is because the need to have a license to keep MJ has been abolished. But of course, the Perhilitan also came up with various new regulations to recoup the ‘losses’. I think I have bought quite a number of types of birds from Lim. I have tried the Merbuk, Sharma, MJ, White Eye and etc. But one of the best singers I kept was the Serinus Mozambicus aka Stone Finch. Its also popularly known as the Yellow Fronted Canary. But I believe there are two diff species or sub species as pointed by Lim. The online community probbalry mixed up the two due to the close similarities. I have seen both species and one is slighly larger than the other and the singing tune by the bigger one is different compared to the smaller one. The local birders calls the bigger species Tai Kam Chiang aka Big Gold Green. The bird originates from Africa. But the ones I bought were captive-bred in Singapore. It s a great singer due to a mixture of high pitches melodies. But one thing, the bird is a messy eater (seed eater ma). The empty shells dirties the whole place. Here are two pics I took of the birds. Forgive me if the perch is obstructing the pic. I ll avoid this angle in future. LOL.

Thanks to David Nikon/David Leica/David Canon/David Hasselblad (OkOk.He virtually used every damn system) or the real name David Tan, I managed to land aka purchase a reasonably good condition used Canon 5D Mk1 (Classic) as a backup body. The unit originate from Singapore. Went through complete shutter overhaul and the ‘laoyah’ mirror was replaced as well. And at the price of under RM3k..This is the best bang for buck back up body in the market. Full Frame ma..I had actually almost bought another unit from another guy. His unit came with a Batt Grip. But upon closer inspection, the unit was in a very used condition and best of all..the battery grip was actually faulty. It couldn’t read the power correctly. It was priced somewhere near to David’s unit hence I decided to not go ahead with the faulty unit. Lets just say..I got a really sweet deal for the unit.

Well..A couple of years back before the 5DMkII was released..The 5DMk Classic was actually priced around RM9k. It was highly rated. Full Frame..Good noise control at ISO 1600. Highly rated for natural skin tone. Highly rated for studio work as well. There was no real competitor to it until Nikon D700 was released. Most of the wedding photogs in the industry was using the Canon 5D classic too. So..Getting one as a backup to my Canon 5DMkII is not a bad idea at all. Hahaha. My only qualm is the lousy LCD panel. Its just like Leica M8. Excellent image quality but friggin lousy LCD panel 😛 Anyway..I managed to give it a quick test today. Took some shots of Nathania while she as home and also Desa Parkcity. Here are some of the shots. As usual..Black and White.

Most would be aware by now that both the D800 and 5D MKIII has hit Malaysia’s shore. The RRP for Nikon D800 is RM 10899 while the Canon 5D MKIII is RM 11199 (source: www.shashinki.com) . Sometime in 2010, I think it was around November, I decided to sell off my 5D MKII in anticipation of the new 5D MKIII release. It was merely a speculation that it would be released sometime in 2011. I thought it would be around June 2011 or sometime before that. But the ill fated Tsunami threw everything off the plan. Both Nikon and Canon manufacturing plants in Japan were affected. So my plans were affected as well. Thanks to my cousin Anderson, he loaned me his 5D MKII for my assignments. But soon, I knew I cant be waiting anymore. Finally I went and bought another unit of used 5D MKII that came with warranty which in a sense was a good buy as the warranty goes into late 2013. Best of all, I bought it at RM6.3k. Good deal lo..Hahahah.

So when they finally announced the new 5D, I wasn’t that really excited when I heard the specs. Yes..They finally upgraded the AF system. Its basically a ‘1DX’ AF system. I am pretty sure it will be a much welcomed improvement over the MkII AF system. ISO range is still around there there region. I would say its no where near Nikon at the moment. Anyhow, to pay around RM5K for improved AF..I think its a little bit too much to pay. AS of today 22/05/2012, I think the 5DMkIII is available around RM9k plus for CPS members whereas the Nikon D800 is around RM 9.2k (No available stock though). I recently acquired a cheap Canon 5D (now called Classic) for under RM3k. It will serve as a backup camera to my existing Canon 5DMKII body. Despite its considered an old technology now, the Canon 5D Classic is highly regarded for its beautiful skin tone reproduction. Some says..Its better than Canon 5DMkII and for the price I paid..Lets just say its a steal. Mint-ish body and new shutter. What more can I ask for?

According to Nikon rumors, the D800 is not a D700 replacement model. There is a D600 in the pipeline. The drawback is that its rumored to be motorless..This means it would not be able to drive the AF lens. Only AFS lens can be used. Also speculated was the size of the D600 whom they claim is a smaller design compared to the D700. Lets look forward to more cameras. Though, I doubt I ll be upgrading. No money..Hahahaha. Cheers.